Some of y'all in here are dealing with a lot more than I am, my hat's off to you! My philosophy is that every day on this side of the dirt is a good one and complaining gets you nowhere fast...
I don't consider myself as being in any way disabled or handicapped, or whatever you would care to call it but I do have double-major scoliotic curves (42 degrees lumbar, 55 thoracic) that have been stabilized with old-school Harrington rods, complete with spinal fusion (a total of 14 vertebra fused, T1 through L2), using bone taken from my iliac crest. The surgery was done 32 years ago, and I now have arthritic lipping in the lumbar veterbrae that can still move.
The top 4" or so of one of the rods sheared off during a wreck (it's been known to happen due to a flaw in the design of the rods), and now I have limited range of motion in my neck, plus my arms tend to go to sleep if they stay in the same position for too long.
I do yoga to enhance what range of motion I have left and to control chronic back/leg pain, I lift weights, do pilates for more core work over and above what I get from the yoga and weight training, and I teach a high-intensity cycle class locally.
I've ridden an old mountain bike for years (on the road, I hike with my wife and dogs in the woods). I'm looking at getting a road bike for commuting and taking my mountain bike back to our place on my wife's family's farm, which is about 5 minutes from the New River Trail, so so she and I can ride the trail (she won't ride her bike in the city).
The endurance-fit bikes and cyclocross bikes seem to fit me me pretty well, position-wise--I can't do the race position for very long as the extra few degrees forward lean becomes painful rather quickly. I'm looking for something with a road frame, skinny tires, and a fairly relaxed ride position--something where the handlebars would be on a level with or maybe just slightly below the seat height, but not as upright as a mountain bike. Does anybody have any input as to a road bike that'd be something to consider?